Auckland City: Orange areas area show the city's area within the greater Auckland conurbation's urban area (grey). The city centre is ringed. Note that the city also encompasses islands of the inner (upper right) and outer Hauraki Gulf.

Auckland City was, together with its neighbouring cities, part of the Greater Auckland area. As the term 'Auckland' may have referred to the local authority alone, to the whole metropolitan area, or even to the broader region, this may have led to ambiguity, since people from other parts of New Zealand or from overseas often did not draw any distinction; especially now that the metropolitan area has been amalgamated.[citation needed] In 2009, Auckland was rated the fourth-best place to live in the world, in human resources consultancy Mercer's annual survey.[2]

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The mainland part of Auckland City lies on an isthmus. The Waitemata Harbour, which opens to the Hauraki Gulf, separates the isthmus from North Shore City and north. The Manukau Harbour, which opens to the Tasman Sea, separates the isthmus from Manukau City and the south. The distance between the two harbours is particularly narrow at each end of the isthmus. At the western end, the Whau River, an estuarial arm of the Waitemata Harbour, comes within two kilometres of the waters of the Manukau Harbour on the west coast and marks the beginning of the Northland Peninsula. A few kilometres to the southeast at Otahuhu, an arm of the Hauraki Gulf on the east coast comes just 1200 metres from the Manukau's waters. Being part of the Auckland volcanic field, much of the isthmus is mantled with volcanic rocks and soils, and several prominent scoria cones dot the isthmus.

Many Hauraki Gulf islands are part of Auckland City. The islands of the inner gulf include Rangitoto, Motutapu, Browns Island, Motuihe, Rakino, Ponui and Waiheke, while the outer gulf islands include Little Barrier, Great Barrier and the Mokohinau Islands.

A significant portion of Auckland's CBD and of the Auckland waterfront is built on land reclaimed over the last 100 years. Substantial development of such under-utilised areas to the west of the CBD has been projected, with large businesses beginning to relocate there as of 2006.

On 15 August 2011, a light snow fell in Auckland city around 2:40pm and lasted around fifteen minutes.

In November 1989, central government restructured local authorities throughout New Zealand. After substantial protests and legal challenges, Auckland City was merged with eight smaller local authorities to form a new Auckland City Council. The new Auckland City had double the population of the old. However, amalgamation, forced onto local authorities often against their will, was criticised to have led to less democracy and higher rates for the same services.[3]

The City of Auckland has a coat of Arms emblazoned as; Argent, upon waves of the sea a two-masted ship in full sail proper flagged Gules, on a chief per pale Azure and Gules to the dexter a Cornucopia Or, to the sinister a Shovel surmounted by a Pick, in Saltire proper. Crest: Issuant out of a Mural Crown Or a representation of the Phormium Tenax flowered proper. Supporters: On either side an Apteryx proper. Motto: Advance.

What it means. Firstly the shield is described. Argent means silver so the shield is silver. “upon waves of the sea a two-masted ship in full sail proper flagged Gules” means that a two masted ship is depicted on the sea. It in full sail, and “proper” means it is depicted in its natural colours. “Gules” means red so the ship has a red flag on it. The next part of the shield is then described. A “chief” is the broad strip at the top of the shield. “Per pale” means the chief is split into two parts by a central division. “Azure” means blue so the first part is coloured blue and the other part is red. “On the dexter” is the right side of the shield from the view of the shield carrier but to left for a viewer. Then the object on this part of the chief is described. A Cornucopia is shown and its colour is “Or” which means gold. On the other side of the chief (sinister, right side for a viewer) is a Shovel. On top of this (“surmounted”) is laid a Pick and “in Saltire” means that they are crossed X fashion. Again “proper” means these two objects are shown in their natural colours. The crest is then described. The “Mural Crown” means a crown made from masonry or bricks and its colour (Or) is again gold. From this crown sprouts New Zealand Flax (Phormium Tenax) in flower. Proper again means it is shown in it natural colours. The Supporters are the creatures on either side of the shield and in this case they are Kiwi birds (Apteryx) in their natural colours. The motto sits under the shield. The mantling and helmet are not usually described in the blazon and the depiction of these is normally left to the heraldic artist to decide.

Auckland's population, as the largest and most cosmopolitan city of New Zealand, and in 2010 was made up of 188 ethnic groups, making it New Zealand's most diverse city, and slightly more diverse than in 2007, when 185 ethnic groups had been counted.[4][5] In 2010, the life expectancy was 83 years for women, and 79.6 years for men, while the average age of the population was 33.4 years, with 35.9 years for the country.[4]

While Auckland suffers from the usual issues associated with any large city, it has recently made some inroads against crime, with the period from 2007 to 2008 showing a drop in crimes reported of 4%, while nationally, there was a 1.2% rise. The reduction was mainly attributed to more night-time police patrols and stricter procedure against liquor-ban breaches and similar offenses, with the "disorder" offences (often related to alcohol) dropping 14.4%.[6]

In the year to March 2009, Auckland City had 353,000 jobs, of which 26.3% was held by property and business services,[7] as well as 65,655 businesses, making up 13.1% of New Zealand's businesses and 16.2% of New Zealand's jobs.[8] Over 2009 to the month of March, Auckland City's unemployment rate increased to 5.6%, compared to the overall New Zealand unemployment rate of 4.5%. In addition the city's economic output declined by 2.4%.[7] Gareth Stiven, the economic manager of Auckland City, stated that this was because the city's economy was heavily involved with service industries, such as banking and insurance, which were affected by financial crises.[9] However, over the last five years of its existence, Auckland's economic growth averaged 1.4% each year, higher than the average of the region and the nation.[4]

Air New Zealand has its worldwide headquarters, called "The Hub", off Beaumont and Fanshawe Streets in Western Reclamation, Auckland City;[11][12] the airline moved there from the Auckland CBD in 2006.[11] In September 2003 Air New Zealand was the only one of the very largest corporations in New Zealand to have its headquarters within the Auckland CBD.[10]